modular.

yeah, the amount of fucking around I'd have to do is a bit of a dealbreaker for me, as is the obvious lack of patch saving. Having said that though, I'm slowing down on playing gigs, and trying to just have more fun making weird shit for my personal enjoyment, so I'm thinking maybe a single voice 0-coast/SV-1/mother32 based setup could be a nice addition to what I've already got.. or even just a tiny modular effects setup.. aargh nooo gotta resist :P

  On 5/29/2017 at 11:26 AM, BCM said:

i sold mine, huge money and time sink, most decent modules are the price of a synth (which is i guess what they are). i don't have loads of time to spend working on patches etc and found that i wasn't using it hardly ever. i also found that even though i had a midi/cv converter module, it wasn't straightforward getting it to work with my other gear - again ended up spending more time than i wanted syncing it every time i turned the thing on. they're lovely bits of kit and really cool but you gotta be so dedicated to it...

i noticed that you had an almost entirely doepfer based synth... doepfer stuff is great, and i use a bunch of it, very functional, logical modules, but the fun of modular, the stuff that you would spend years figuring out how to recreate ITB, comes from the weirder stuff. My Intellijel Shapeshifter for example, is, as you say, the cost of a modern budget analogue poly, at 450 quid, and by itself, it doesnt really justify it, but modulated by a whole system of complex pingable LFO's and vcas, it does things that no morphable wavefolding VCO has come close to in my computer. 

it's not that much fucking around if you want to patch up a simple monosynth, or a drum sound or something like that.

I'm making tracks on my modular that I'd never make in a DAW. maybe with something like Reaktor blocks I would've come close, but still. not saying modular is something everyone needs as I can understand the frustrations, but to me it's worth it.

Yeah. Maybe one day. For now I'm very happy with the nord modular, I'm having a lot of fun making horrible noises that sometimes border on lovely ambience with it :D

what really gets me with modular, is that you can take three simple modules, for example, i have the Shapeshifter, the Rubicon as VCO's, and then i run them through a mixer into the mutable clouds and intellijel rainmaker. when you buy a new modulation source, it constantly opens up entirely new creative ideas from your already existing modules you had not been able to realise before. it has invigorated my creativity in a way so profound that for the first time in my life im actually making music that is think is as good as i want it to be. 

on the doepfer thing, i just bought a complete system already built coz again, i didn't feel i had the time to bugger about building a system module by module... this was definitely a mistake and if i was to get another modular i'd have to really take my time getting it just right and really thinking about the modules that fit in with my style - e.g. i'd want lots of sequencing options, the doepfer system i had was well limited in this regard

ive been slowing myself down, i think buying a prebuilt system is a huge mistake. even with doepfer stuff, there is a huge learning curve. getting one module a month gives you a chance to truely understand what it does in the context of your system. if you just dumped on me my current setup, im not sure id have the chance to have a clue what was going on, but spread over the two years, i understand it enough to make great sounds, but also there is a depth to most of my modules im still to comprehend. i havent even started to grab any logic basic modules or clock dividers. 

  On 5/29/2017 at 1:37 PM, BCM said:

on the doepfer thing, i just bought a complete system already built coz again, i didn't feel i had the time to bugger about building a system module by module... this was definitely a mistake and if i was to get another modular i'd have to really take my time getting it just right and really thinking about the modules that fit in with my style - e.g. i'd want lots of sequencing options, the doepfer system i had was well limited in this regard

yeah, I think that's the way to go for sure! start small and expand based on your needs. makes getting each new module way more fun too.

I've been having tons of fun with my system.  For the first six months I focused only on hardware jams, not even opening the DAW other than to record the sound.  Now I've started to re-incorporate Live a little bit more for the ease of sequencing my Shruthis and Yarns but I'm staying out of the box as much as possible for the moment.  Still exploring and finding very cool sounds.  I also slowly acquired modules as I built each one and would recommend the same -- I had some cool moments w/ just Peaks + Braids, no filter or anything lol.

 I can't buy/build anything for a while so I'll just be diving deeper into the modules I currently have.

I came here to post and brag that I successfully avoided getting into modular when I had the urge couple of months ago.. but then I remembered that I still backed the KOMA Elektronik Field Kit and the tracking page says it's currently awaiting customs clearing, so I guess I better stop lying to myself. Especially as I can't help myself thinking that it would probably be real nice if I had the 0-coast to go along with it...

  On 5/30/2017 at 12:53 AM, hautlle said:

I also slowly acquired modules as I built each one and would recommend the same

Yeah, I'm trying to learn electronics so I can start designing my own stuff. I think jumping right into making little eurorack modules of my own design would be a good idea!

  On 5/30/2017 at 4:50 AM, thawkins said:

 Especially as I can't help myself thinking that it would probably be real nice if I had the 0-coast to go along with it...

you know what to do

(I swear I don't work for make noise)

for all my talk of not really liking the modular i used to have, i am getting serious gear lust for the new roland system 500...

Whenever I feel the need to look into getting a modular thingy I boot this up and swiftly realize I'm not bright enough:

I bought the ae modular via kickstarter and I've just been told that it has shipped!!

  On 5/31/2017 at 12:46 PM, Squee said:

I bought the ae modular via kickstarter and I've just been told that it has shipped!!

I'm getting my KOMA Elektronic Field Kit with piezos and motors this Friday.

The Analog Four is a perfect companion to a modular rack. You get 4 elektron sequencer outputs that can send pitch, Lfo/values, gates, trigs, or any combination which can be saved and recalled etc. you can also route the audio from your modular as an oscillator in one of the voices so you get all the a4 goodness that you get per part.

^Yeah, sending p-locked envelopes from the A4 to the modular is pretty cool. Up until now I don't think any other equipment would let you do that, but it seems the Circklon recently got support for sending out envelopes over CV.

anyone tried softube modular? i know its not the real deal but hey

  On 6/1/2017 at 3:08 AM, thawkins said:

 

  On 5/31/2017 at 12:46 PM, Squee said:

I bought the ae modular via kickstarter and I've just been told that it has shipped!!

I'm getting my KOMA Elektronic Field Kit with piezos and motors this Friday.

 

 

Dayuuuuum!

I think its also worth mentioning about the Analog Four is that you can set your "source" to any of the 6 tracks. So lets say on track 1 you have an internally made melody, you can setup a CV for pitch that uses track 1 as a source, and a gate that uses track 1 as a source as well.

This allows you to seed sequencer ideas pretty quickly if you get something going on a track.